US Progressive Party

The Progressive Party was a democratic socialist political party in the United States that existed from 1924 to 1934 and from 1948 to 1955. The party's first incarnation was founded by Robert M. La Follete Sr. so that he could run for president in 1924, and he won only his home state of Wisconsin, having the support of many counties in the American West and Midwest with prominent German-American communities or labor movements. The party dissolved in 1934, but the party was revived by Vice President Henry A. Wallace in 1948 with the goal of presenting a left-wing third party to oppose Harry S. Truman's interventionist faction of the Democratic Party and the increasingly conservative Republican Party. The party came in fourth during the United States presidential election, 1948, placing behind the Dixiecrats. The party lost due to its association with communism, as it was a safe haven for communists, communist-sympathizing intellectuals, and anti-war liberals during the Second Red Scare. The party dissolved in 1955.